I hope this is not just me, but my ears seem to pop every time I induce yawning reflex with my throat, and it feels similar to the ear pops you get in NCR. A few days ago I discovered that if I try to suck my posterior tongue wide up towards nasopharynx and the inner ears while yawning hard, I get multiple of these kinds of pops. Often my face feels weirdly light for a second or two after stopping. Today I found that by jutting mandible down and forward(!), and stretching the head to various ends of its range of motion supercharges this exercise. On top of the ear pops I have experienced several cracks in the upper verbetrae near the base of the skull.
Biologically speaking, it would make sense that a good yawn "resets" the skull, neutralizing bad alignment/tension/wear and tear from the day's activities just before the period skeletal changes are usually solified: the sleep. I don't know. I never got the brain cooling theory of yawning.
You're definitely on to something, and someone else was onto it back in 2004 (and never again since)
https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/do-skull-bones-move.107577/
Their website has expired, but luckily there is an internet archive of it
https://web.archive.org/web/20160821060453/http://www.members.shaw.ca:80/hilaryking/Oldbrain1.htm
I do not think that there's any part of the spine or skull that needs outside intervention to be put back into place if it is out of alignment. It just doesn't make biological sense that there would be 22 skull bones and no mechanism to correct any of them being out of place. The muscles which attach to the sphenoid (although I've been told even by NCR practitioners that there are none... even the experts are lacking) attach to the lower jaw
A nice wide yawn will definitely pull the sphenoid, and that website's theories about pressure in the CSF fluid should align the skull bones as well.
This is interesting. Some of what I skimmed through on that archived website seemed a little wacky to me, but some of it seemed legit. I have definitely used that yawning motion to equalize the pressure in my ears on airplanes.
This is a really interesting theory. Here's a quote from Oldbrain on the Harvard mgh forums.
"I decided to focus on my headache and yawn as deeply as I could. It was quiet, and I heard the sound of bones moving like joints or knuckle cracking. The sounds intrigued me. It seemed like only one of the bone movement sounds came from my jaw, but there were others as well nearby. I tried to figure out the sounds and I played them over and over again in my mind. I also heard a distinct gush. I think it was three cracking sounds and a gush all at almost the very same time as the deepest part of the yawn.
I tried to figure out where these sounds came from. I knew something had happened but I didn't know what. It was about twenty minutes after that yawn that I realized that my headache was completely gone.
I knew I was on to something."
I'm going to look into this more later. Maybe it will help with expansion. Also I have never had any of the pops in my skull that you guys refer to. I've never heard anything like that no matter how much mewing I do. If yawning makes it finally happen I'll report back.
@allixa - I'm not sure what your body posture is like, but I've found that the releases in my skull from yawning and stretching have only started since I've begun truly working on my forward head posture. My ears have also been opening up a lot more in the last couple months when I yawn. It was a trick I had learned as a kid when flying, which Apollo mentioned above, but I had noticed that as I'd gotten older, it had stopped working. Chewing gum was another trick to pop my ears in the plane! Really interesting how I use both now for this.
I do think progress in the releases in my skull are in response to getting closer to proper body posture.
If I force a yawn I think there is an increase in popping when I return to mewing.
You know... Mew talks about how the MADs cause the maxilla to push back inevitably due to Newtonian law.
Perhaps This Newtonian framework is key to upswing and facial development.
i wondered if there was a way to manipulate this relationship for maxillary advancement.
maybe yawning as ncr works on similar principles of action resulting in a reaction!
Is there any documentation of mandibular movement affecting the sphenoid?
@allixa - I'm not sure what your body posture is like, but I've found that the releases in my skull from yawning and stretching have only started since I've begun truly working on my forward head posture. My ears have also been opening up a lot more in the last couple months when I yawn. It was a trick I had learned as a kid when flying, which Apollo mentioned above, but I had noticed that as I'd gotten older, it had stopped working. Chewing gum was another trick to pop my ears in the plane! Really interesting how I use both now for this.
I do think progress in the releases in my skull are in response to getting closer to proper body posture.
I think that my posture is pretty good. I used to have a forward head posture with an upward tilt but now my head is rotated such that it's almost like I am looking slightly down instead of straight ahead. And it feels natural. But I will work on it some more to see if I can get the feeling of skull movement.
I can definitely pop my ears by chewing or by yawning, but I was under the impression that it was just a pressure equalization feeling and not bones moving around.
@allixa - I'm not sure what your body posture is like, but I've found that the releases in my skull from yawning and stretching have only started since I've begun truly working on my forward head posture. My ears have also been opening up a lot more in the last couple months when I yawn. It was a trick I had learned as a kid when flying, which Apollo mentioned above, but I had noticed that as I'd gotten older, it had stopped working. Chewing gum was another trick to pop my ears in the plane! Really interesting how I use both now for this.
I do think progress in the releases in my skull are in response to getting closer to proper body posture.
I think that my posture is pretty good. I used to have a forward head posture with an upward tilt but now my head is rotated such that it's almost like I am looking slightly down instead of straight ahead. And it feels natural. But I will work on it some more to see if I can get the feeling of skull movement.
I can definitely pop my ears by chewing or by yawning, but I was under the impression that it was just a pressure equalization feeling and not bones moving around.
That's great! I do feel the pressure equalization when I yawn and chew gum, but there are also different pops and releases around my ear that I feel, rather than just inside my ear. The major reason I think there's something here to the yawning, though, is that the worse my posture has gotten, the less affective the yawning and chewing gum has been to the pressure equalization. And the better it's gotten since.
Wow there's something there.
It is sure linked to my problems. For years I haven't been able to yawn, because as soon as my jaw opened with all the muscles implied in yawning, it felt like it was going to crush, to dislocate, and it made sand cracking sounds in my ears. So for years, every time I would yawn, I would close my mouth as much as I can in order not to break my jaw. I had multiple problems, such as tinnitus, TMJ disorders, headaches, muscles contractures in all my neck, posture problems. And furthermore I degenerated a lot, speaking of maxilla, my first vertebra moved to the right, my jaw, etc.
Now all of these problemes have decreased and after these 2 years I'm finally able to yawn without my jaw exploding. I thought I wasn't going to be able to yawn forever hehe.
So don't know which caused which etc but still, good idea.
I read a while ago on one of the dystonia forums I belong to that the purpose of yawning is to release tension in the jaw. I didn't note which expert claimed this, so I'm not sure who this theory comes from.
I do believe that opening your mouth wide is a great way to relieve jaw tension, though. Tensing the abs while opening the mouth is an exercise sometimes prescribed to people with dystonia.
With the help of @Progress, I discovered a way to relieve a particular type of headache I had a few times last week (tension in the middle of my forehead). You'll probably need to read Progress's post here to understand what I did. Basically, I went in to the ziggurat stance, looked up and opened my mouth and eyes as wide as possible while sticking out my tongue. About 30 seconds later, headache gone for the rest of the day.
Stretch the **** out of your jaw muscles, to the point of near dislocation, by tilting back your skull as you lift it up, and dropping your jaw and sticking your tongue as far out as possible. Imitate the little men/jaguars in the center of Mayan mandalas. Stretch your mouth and eyes wide. This is an exercise in vital force, and all rotations begin with a falling into passivity by the body, when one merely supports against gravity rather than activey holding themself upward. Fierce faces often found in religious art contain ancient wisdom of self healing. Make your face look ugly. You will need to contort to release your jaw, but once it does, the rest of thebody will start falling into place.
Remember this pain... and let it activate you.
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